Resumo

In the rise of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), governments worldwide as well companies go through a transition, trying to adapt themselves to the Knowledge Society demands. Such innovative technologies enable the improvement of relations between society and their governments, and between companies and their partners, providing improvements in quality and efficiency of public and private sectors. At the same time that these interfaces provide unprecedented opportunities, the growth of the digital universe reveals threats regarding the vulnerability of electronic information. The digital certificate may be the answer that governments and businesses need to operate in this new environment of uncertainty. This article aims to present a current overview of the technology involved in digital certification and a list of the most important applications currently available in Brazil. Therefore, it starts with a series of concepts related with the beginning of encryption, explains the specific aspects of certification and digital signature, and discusses the organizational and legal aspects of the Infrastructure for the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure. Finally, we present the main applications of this technology in Brazil at this moment. The conclusion we reach is that there is great potential for the use of digital certification in the country that can be the basis for the safe development of electronic government and commerce within confidence and tranquillity to their users.